Yello's Gaming Journal
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October 30, 2024 - Excess gaming
I hate to add to the constant complaining about modern gaming, but one aspect that I can definitely stand to critique is this period of excess within gaming today. Back in the day, only the commercials, advertisements, and poster would boast about having a vast selection of games. But now that image of abundance has spread to everyday gamers, with social media influencers and content creators not helping either.
Why does it feel like I'm always missing out on some random game, whether it's a new release or an old classic? Well, I know why. It's because I'm chronically online. And the content I choose to consume on a daily basis is what influences me to feel this way. My YouTube habits are infamously unhealthy. While it's not explicitly a social media platform, it way as well be by the number of hours I spend on it every day.
While not 100% of my YouTube consumption is related to gaming, it takes up a sizable portion of what I see in my recommendations. This is nothing new, I first dipped my toes in YouTube gaming videos back in 2011 with Let's Plays. However, the difference between now and then is the scope. Let's Plays focused on one game and one game only. And since YouTube videos used to have time limits, the playthrough was split up into multiple parts, like an internet version of a TV show.
Fast forward a little bit to the era Top 10 videos, although they could focus on a variety of video games that matched the subject, they were still trivial by nature, something that you could passively watch on your lunch break. There wasn't really a commitment to keep up with the channel and references to other videos. While this format has its faults, most times, it was still little-hearted fun and didn't require too much resources to make and watch.
Now it's 2024, the YouTube landscape has absolutely ballooned in scope, both for the creators and consumers. We have stream VODs, video essays, shorts, stream highlights, literally SO much content being uploaded to the site and an even faster pace than 10 years ago, which was already a lot.
The most popular format right now in the gaming space is to emulate everything to do with a MrBeast video. What does that mean? Spend an absurd amount of time and/or money achieving an outlandish goal just for the video. That can take form in playing every single game in a series, getting all the achievements in a limited amount of time, documenting the progress of a game over a long period of time, an overly lengthy video essay critiquing or praising a game, and who could ever forget the millions of podcasts?
Do I have a problem with any of these formats? No. Most times, these aren't inherently problematic on their own like prank or drama videos. I know the internet doesn't need another aspect of leisure to analyze and critique from the moral high-ground, but I can't help but sit back and wonder how we got here. How is it so normal to watch YouTubers go out of their way buying and playing SO many games that they would otherwise never touch?
Even if someone is a Pokémon content creator who genuinely loves the franchise, I KNOW that if they weren't making videos, they would NEVER acquire that many Pokémon games at once, because that much gaming isn't physically OR financially feasible for the average person. But since competition requires pushing the scope to the absolute limit, I see some legacy content creators I knew of back in the day adapting their videos to accommodate this MrBeast-ified rat race, which could be smart for their channel, but I sometimes wonder if they're playing the game as a job rather for enjoyment. Some are more transparent than others about their relationship with games as a content creator, but I can't help but feel bad for how much games they feel like they HAVE to consume.
And this spans past content creation because now it's influencing non-creators like myself to play more and more games. Before COVID, I never considered getting literally every Pokémon game, including multiple versions of the same generation. But now since it's common to complete a living dex, replay older games, and show off our collections, I'm also sucked into this vortex of catching 'em all, just how the Pokémon Company likes it. I'm not above this overwhelming influence.
Pokémon fans are in their own bubble, but I feel this sense of FOMO to other franchises I like, such as Mario Party, Just Dance, and even Zelda, a franchise I have mixed feelings for but continue to engage with. Since so many more people are growing up with games, now it feels like I'm competing to try out games I missed growing up. And there's only so many physical games to go around. Hence why I hope remakes, port, and rereleases are more accessible in the future.
It's especially difficult being a huge Nintendo fan because 98% of their games are coveted by everyone. Now that my generation is growing up with more disposable income than before, I'm starting to feel the consequences when me and millions of other people want to own the same old game. There's only so much time any of us can dedicate to playing a video game at a time, but our current culture pressures us into thinking that we're not playing enough. I feel like we weren't supposed to play THIS many games at once. I can't wait for the day that slowing down becomes cool again. I hope one day that having a "minimal collection" doesn't feel like I'm just poor and out of luck.